Voices of Music is directed by musician-scholars Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler, who bring together a core group of the Bay Area’s leading specialists in period-instrument performance to present creative, accessible early music programs. Respected worldwide for its artistry, Voices of Music selects concert repertory to showcase its unique strengths in order to reach its audiences in relevant and vital ways. Each season, Voices of Music presents concert series at three locations in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to several smaller concerts that feature the works of a particular composer or instrument. Voices of Music produces performance and educational music videos and since 2007 has been building a digital library of music from its concerts. This online library has transformed the way audiences engage with music reaching more than thirty-three million viewers with ages ranging from eighteen to thirty-four. As one of the largest classical music channels in the US, this free music video library is used in classes in high schools, colleges, and universities.

(March 2019)

Cara Gabrielson was a 2020 national semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 2018 in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat. In 2022 she joined the roster  of the Metropolitan Opera in Idomeneo and returned to the SF Symphony in Orff’s Carmina burana and Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy. This season she sings Lucy in Fellow Travelers  with Opera Parallèle and covers the title role in Florencia en el Amazonas with Opera San Jose.

As a solo recitalist, Ms. Gabrielson has sung at the Oregon Bach Festival and Portland Opera Guild. In 2019–20 she joined the Opera Idaho Emerging Artists Program to perform the title role in Acis and Galatea, Poussette in Manon, and Sister Catherine in Dead Man Walking. In 2018 she was a singer at the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto and a fellow at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival, where she soloed in Bach’s St. John Passion and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Ms. Gabrielson earned bachelor and master of music degrees from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is an alumna of Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artists Vocal Academy and the Opera Saratoga Young Artist Program.
 

Soprano MICHELE KENNEDY is a versatile specialist in early classical and new music and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Bard Summerscape, the Getty Museum, Lincoln Center, and Washington National Cathedral.

Her recent highlights include J.S. Bach’s Magnificat and St. John Passion with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah with Trinity Wall Street, Poulenc’s Gloria with the Bach Society of Saint Louis, and Undine Smith Moore’s Scenes from the Life of a Martyr at UC Berkeley. She has presented Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers with Dark Horse Consort and Voices of Ascension, Bach Cantatas and Saint John Passion with American Classical Orchestra, and Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream with The San Francisco Ballet. Her recent debut with Agave Baroque celebrating female voices from the seventeenth century through the present day will soon be made into an album.

Soprano Joanna Taber has been a professional member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus since the 2011-12 season. She made her San Francisco Symphony solo debut in 2012 in Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas and also appeared as soloist with the SFS in Orff’s Carmina burana in May 2015. Other solo appearances include the title role of Dvořák’s Rusalka, Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte, the Wife in Milhaud's Le Pauvre matelot, and Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass. Ms. Taber is an alumna of the Music Academy of the West, where she studied with Marilyn Horne. She holds degrees from the University of Oklahoma and UC Santa Barbara.

(May 2018)

Mezzo-soprano Silvie Jensen appeared with the SFS last season as the Nurse in Boris Godunov and alto soloist in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat. She recently performed with Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Island City Opera and the Mendocino Music Festival; American Chamber Opera in Chicago in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen; and with One World Symphony as Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She has premiered new operas with Riverside Opera, Stonington Opera House, at the Ostrava Days Festival in the Czech Republic, and at the Carolina Chamber Music Festival. She has created and performed new works at London’s Barbican Centre with Ornette Coleman, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara with Meredith Monk, and Carnegie Hall with Philip Glass. Ms. Jensen made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall singing J.S. Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion and later appeared there in Handel's Messiah. Her solo album Who Is Silvie? is available on iTunes. Visit www.silviejensen.com for more information.

(March 2019)

Mezzo-soprano Margaret “Peg” Lisi was a featured soloist in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Voices of Music ensemble in 2018. She has performed with local and regional opera companies throughout the US in more than thirty roles, including Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) with Florida Grand Opera, the title role of Carmen with Houston’s Orchestra X, Columbina in Busoni’s Arlecchino with the Berkeley Symphony, and multiple characters in the world premiere of Travels by Victoria Bond with Opera Roanoke. Other highlights include the title roles of Rossini’s L'Italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Handel’s Xerxes, La Périchole, Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), and Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), and Nicklausse (The Tales of Hoffmann). Ms. Lisi was an apprentice with Portland Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and Florida Grand Opera where she earned the Gilbert Young Artist Award. She was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and first place recipient of the East Bay Opera League Award.

(February 2019)

Elliott Encarnación is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He has written for ensembles and institutions in his native Michigan as well as New York and San Francisco. While his repertory includes numerous sacred choral works, his primary compositional focus is on the art of opera. He co-founded Prodigal Opera Productions in 2013, a Bay Area company, workshop, and theater dedicated to reviving interest, and relevance in the art form. He joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 2013.

(May 2018)

Tenor Jonathan Thomas, a native of Lawrence, KS, joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 2014. He has appeared as a soloist with the SFS in Carmina burana and at SoundBox in Monteverdi’s Magnificat from the Vespers of 1610 and Pérotin’s Sederunt Principes. Mr. Thomas received his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Kansas, and he completed apprenticeships at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Des Moines Metro Opera. He has made concert and opera appearances, in roles such as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Laertes in Hamlet, Don Curzio and Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, and the role of the Raven in the world premiere of Robert Kapilow’s Summer Sun, Winter Moon with the Kansas City Symphony. He has also performed with the Kansas City Chorale and appeared on recordings as a soloist and ensemble member with the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers. Mr. Thomas currently sings with the chamber choir Cappella SF. 

(May 2018)

Baritone Matthew Peterson grew up in the deep choral culture of Minnesota. He joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 2011 and has made regular solo appearances with the SFS. Highlights include Boris Godunov (Chernikovsky), J.S. Bach's Magnificat, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Missa solemnis, and the Magnificat from Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in the SFS SoundBox series. He has also made solo appearances in the Bay Area with Opera San Jose, in Washington DC with the Washington Master Chorale, and in the Czech Republic and Austria with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is passionate about chamber chorus music, and has performed regularly with Gaude, Cappella SF, and Clerestory. Mr. Peterson studied piano with Hans Boepple and voice with Paul Murray at Santa Clara University.

(March 2019)

Amateur Music Network (AMN) celebrates the amateur in all of us. AMN believes that whether playing and singing for pleasure, performing music for our primary careers, or just listening, music is how we share our deepest emotional selves. At Amateur Music Network, music is available to everyone, regardless of skill, and to participate in music is one of life’s greatest pleasures. AMN is open to all; all ages and all genres/interests are welcome. If you haven’t sung or played in a long time, if you’ve been singing or playing regularly for years, if you’re a long-time musician trying out a new instrument or style to add to your skill set, or even if you've never sung or picked up an instrument before—Amateur Music Network is for you. AMN envisions a world where music is an integral part of life, where all people experience the joy of playing, singing, and listening, and where access to music-making is available, encouraged, and celebrated. Learn more at amateurmusic.org or @amateurmusicnetwork on all social platforms.